Councillor 'very disappointed' after improvements to school route left out of Shropshire safety plan

Shropshire Council approved the final version of its local cycling and walking plan (LCWIP), a range of schemes to improve walking and cycling routes across Shropshire, at a meeting of full council on Thursday.

The programme sets out a range of schemes across seven Shropshire towns, and had been in development for several years prior to being approved by the council’s cabinet in March.

But Meole councillor Bernie Bentick (Lib Dem) was left unhappy when wording for proposed improvements between Longden Road roundabout and Pulverbatch was amended to exclude the route past the Priory and Meole Brace schools – despite reassurance from the administration that it could be added in later.

The original scheme to create a cycle route “from Radbrook Green to Longden, along Longden Road” was re-worded in a later version of the document with the reference to Longden Road dropped, and an alternative “encourage shared use of the A488 [Hanwood Road]” included instead.

Earlier this year Councillor Bentick had co-signed a letter with three other councillors calling for an urgent meeting on a trio of proposed road safety schemes for the area.

“This area was identified as an accident cluster site, as on average there are three road traffic collisions per school term,” he told the meeting.

“Four local councillors expressed concern about aspects of the Meole active travel quarter plans with a joint letter requesting an urgent meeting with the portfolio holder. Despite further requests, this meeting has still not happened.

“The Meole element has been completely amputated from this report, which is very disappointing.

“The section of the report that I refer to is an integral part of the Shrewsbury aspect of the plan, and to amputate it from the rest of the report is egregious, it’s unbelievable.”

However portfolio holder Ian Nellins declined to accept Councillor Bentick’s proposed amendment to the wording of the scheme to include Longden Road, saying the council was agreeing to the principles of the plan with a chance to review individual schemes later on.

“The Meole Brace junction is not part of the LCWIP, it falls in line, but it’s actually a road safety project that is funded in a completely different way so it’s not part of this LCWIP process,” he said.

“The point is taken on board that Meole Brace can be added into the Shrewsbury section, but it doesn’t really take away from the rest of it.

“This is about the actual plan, not about the individual aspects of it.”

Councillor Bentick re-iterated his request for an urgent meeting on road safety improvements in Meole “without further delay” after the amendment fell to a vote of 22 for and 34 against.

A separate amendment from Green councillor Julian Dean to include improvements to New Street in Porthill into the LCWIP was accepted.